Speaking to the media here, he said the BJP stood for smaller states and supported the cause of Telengana statehood.

Under the NDA government, it was the statesmanship of then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to create the states of Uttrakhand, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand without much fuss. On the other hand the UPA government had allowed the Telengana issue to drift and caused a rift within a state, he added.

He said the government should not backtrack from its commitments made to the people on the Telengana issue.

Speaking about organisational elections in Himachal, Mr Jain disclosed that the membership drive had so far registered 3.70 lakh members, which was more than the 3.20 lakh members registered three yeard ago.

The party hold a membership campaign after every 3 years when all existing and new members have to register themselves with the party, he said. Only after completion of the membership drive, assembly level ‘mandal’ elections would be held, which would be followed by election of district presidents and state party president.

About cross voting in the Shimla municipal corporation elections, Mr Jain said that efforts were being made to find out the BJP members who had not voted for the party candidate and action would be taken against them.